On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 12:49:01PM +1200, LizR wrote: > Depends what you mean by "free will". > > Reasoning based on past experience is one good definition (by which > criterion a computer can have free will too, and without being conscious). > > Another good definition is "first person unpredictability" (not knowing > what you will do next). > > Presumably random noise in the brain will influence a random decision (i.e. > one where there is no reason to prefer one outcome over another). That > appears to be what is happening in this experiment. I'm not sure if > everyone would agree this is "free will". >
I don't everybody will ever agree about "free will". Whilst I don't fully agree with JC that "free will" is a meaningless string of ASCII characters, I would agree that a lot of "hot air" is generated about free will. I personally don't think rationality makes for a good definition of free will. A perfectly rational being is constrained to always choose the optimal course of action. Such a will can hardly be "free". -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
